


Penny for Your Thoughts

by Mnemosyne_Elegy



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:40:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28050300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mnemosyne_Elegy/pseuds/Mnemosyne_Elegy
Summary: Gray always has a spur-of-the-moment answer to the question "What are you thinking?" Natsu, not so much. He thinks he has some idea of what's going through Gray's head, until it occurs to him that every silly debate is really a distraction. They never quite talk about what they're actually thinking, but they'll figure it out eventually.
Relationships: Natsu Dragneel & Gray Fullbuster
Kudos: 27





	Penny for Your Thoughts

**Author's Note:**

> This is loosely based off a scene waaay back in "Because I Need You to Stay". There's a throwback lol

Either Gray had an incredibly strange mind or he was a master of the lightning-quick retort. Maybe both, although Natsu had never been too good at reading him. The mystifying problem was that, for as dumb as he was, he was always thinking. Natsu didn't see how the two went along with each other, but Gray had always been an odd duck.

He could almost dismiss it as Gray being moody. Or broody, as the case may be. Aside from being grumpy and unfriendly, he was standoffish and often snuck off to be on his own. Natsu thought that seemed like a boring and not fun way to live, but Gray wasn't always the most fun person unless they were fighting.

Natsu didn't ask what Gray did when he wandered off. He didn't usually ask what was on Gray's mind, either. He figured he probably didn't want to know.

Still, he _had_ grown just the teensiest bit fond of the other boy, despite their differences. If nothing else, he was a good sparring companion. Natsu needed a sparring companion if he hoped to beat Erza someday soon. He thought that they might even be friends someday, if Gray would just lighten up already.

So one day, when he noticed Gray off sulking in the corner of the guild by himself, Natsu bit the bullet and asked what he was doing.

What it _appeared_ Gray was doing was staring blankly at the wall and occasionally scowling halfheartedly. This seemed entirely pointless and boring, and Natsu congratulated himself on being the bigger person and offering the insufferable boy a way out.

The look Gray gave him made him wish that he hadn't.

"What do you care?" Gray sneered.

"I was just asking," Natsu said defensively.

He looked around, wishing Erza was here to challenge, but she had brushed him off this morning, saying she was visiting the scary old lady in the woods. Porlyusica. Probably about the eye patch. Natsu wished she hadn't. Even she was more pleasant company than Gray, and she was nearly as standoffish.

"I'm just thinking," Gray grumbled. "And you're making it really hard with all your blabbering."

"I don't _blabber_." Natsu eyed the other boy skeptically. He was trying to wrap his head around the idea that Gray might actually _think_. "What are you thinking about?"

"I'm thinking about punching you in the face."

Of course there would be a fistfight after an answer like that.

* * *

Over time, Gray's answers became increasingly elaborate. Natsu would find him sulking in the corner of the guild or staring off into space as he walked or ditching his unofficial team with Cana and Loke to run off on solo jobs and, sometimes, when the urge to punch him in the face wasn't as strong or he seemed particularly broody, ask what he was thinking.

Gray always had an answer.

"Do you think Happy is the son of a cat and a bird?"

"If you actually had a brain, how many brain cells do you think you could cram inside your head given the thickness of your skull versus the amount of empty space inside it?"

"Do you reckon Erza is at least one-tenth cake by now?"

"Is it fair to say that a brick is just a domesticated rock?"

"Wouldn't it be cool if you could taste colors?"

"Are lizards descended from dragons or are dragons just overgrown lizards?"

The last incited a fight, as it was undoubtedly meant to do. A fair number of retorts seemed designed to do just that, if Gray's sly smirk was anything to go by. Some actually made Natsu think—which he _could_ do, thank you very much—or drew him into silly debates about the most ridiculous, off-the-wall ideas. Gray's ideas ranged from insulting to eccentric to bordering on insanity.

Either Gray really did think about the strangest of things, or he was smarter than he looked and could spit out improvised answers on command. No matter how lost in thought he seemed or how abruptly Natsu interrupted him, Gray could snap back a retort nearly instantaneously, each more fantastic than the last. It became something of a game after a while. Natsu sometimes liked to interrupt Gray's thoughts just to hear his absurd explanations and join in heated debates about them.

Natsu, sadly, lacked Gray's improvisational abilities, but he also didn't have much occasion to use them in such a context. He was rarely quiet or particularly thoughtful, and even more rarely _broody_. He focused on what was in front of him and spoke whatever was on his mind without making anyone pry it out of him. It made more sense to him, anyway. Living in your head wasn't the same thing as living out in the world.

Only on rare occasions did he indulge in rumination. He wasn't one to dwell on the past—he hardly saw the point when the present was so much fun and the future was close enough to touch—but there was one thing that still anchored him there, no matter how fast he ran. The only thing that kept him looking over his shoulder was Igneel.

He didn't dwell on his father's disappearance often, although he enjoyed telling stories about his childhood and regaling everyone with tales of a real-life dragon. He preferred to keep searching for Igneel rather than brooding about his loss.

Still, sometimes it came back to haunt him, when yet another lead hit a dead end or the anniversary of Igneel's disappearance rolled around or something of that nature. And, every once in a while, it would hit him out of the blue for no proper reason at all.

It was one of those days when Gray turned the tables. For whatever reason, Natsu had woken melancholy. He had a vague impression that his dreams had really been more of nightmares, although he couldn't quite remember anything aside from hazy recollections of fire and blood and unanswered calls. He couldn't even say for sure that Igneel had been involved, except for the ache gnawing at his bones when he awoke.

Natsu splashed cold water on his face, got dressed, and pulled himself together. By the time Happy was fully awake and they were set to head to the guild, he was totally fine.

He was totally fine except for a nagging feeling at the back of his mind, a gaping sense of loss he couldn't quite shake. He found it harder than usual to follow conversations, and eventually migrated to a spot in the corner while Happy went off to cheerfully bother Lisanna.

Out of all the people who might have approached him, Gray would have been his last pick. Not that they weren't friends, of a sort, although they'd never admit it. But Gray spent more time on his own or with Cana and Loke. He didn't generally go seeking out Narsu's company unless he was bored or spoiling for a fight, which was often the same thing.

"Penny for your thoughts," he said, dropping onto the bench beside Natsu.

Natsu frowned. "Penny?"

"Ah, it's an old Isvan expression." Gray rubbed at the bridge of his nose, suddenly looking self-conscious. "Different currency, you know. I think they've switched over to jewels now too, but it doesn't have quite the same ring to it."

Natsu eyed him sidelong. Gray never talked about the place he'd grown up—if ever asked, he'd innocently reply that he'd grown up in Fairy Tail, hadn't he? The only thing Natsu really knew about it was that it was cold.

"Oh?" he said.

Gray rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like _dumbass_. "Whatcha thinking?" he clarified.

"Oh." Natsu tried to think up something clever or silly or even just anything that wasn't the truth, however mundane, but drew a blank. He found his tongue tied. "Nothing, really."

He knew it was a mistake as soon as he saw Gray's eyebrows jump up his forehead.

"Nothing? Figures. I knew you didn't have a brain floating around in that thick skull of yours."

Natsu scowled. "Do so."

"Pity," Gray said with a dramatic sigh. "If only you had a brain, imagine what a more compelling response you could come up with."

"Why are you such an idiot?" Natsu grumbled.

Gray smirked. "Says the guy with no brain."

Natsu stood up. "That's it, you stupid–"

"Okay, prove it. Give me one thought, then."

"What?" Natsu hesitated, taken aback.

"Oh, come on," Gray said, rolling his eyes. "I would have expected you were at _least_ thinking about what you wanted to eat for lunch. You're a walking stomach."

"Well, I _am_ hungry…"

"Perfect." Gray stood up and swept out an arm towards the door. "That's what I was counting on. There's this new place that opened up right near my apartment, and I'm dying to try it. Let's go."

Natsu frowned. "Me?"

"Well, you're hungry, aren't you? Might as well."

His bewildered frown deepened as Gray ushered him out of the guild and launched into a long-winded description of the new restaurant's cuisine. Gray did not usually invite him out to try new restaurants. He usually just punched him in the face.

The food was good, though, even if Gray _never shut up_ and teased him mercilessly about every little thing. The only thing Gray had going for him was that for as utterly annoying as he could be, he was funny too. Not funnier than Natsu, of course. Natsu wouldn't be beaten at his own game, so he had to step up to the plate to make sure he one-upped his idiot friend.

"Also, I have a job," Gray said as they were finishing up.

"Does it involve making ice cubes for old ladies' lemonade?"

He rolled his eyes. "No, dumbass. I thought you might join me."

"I'm pretty sure I would just melt the ice cubes, and then their lemonade would be really watery."

"For the love of– There have been reports of some idiot freezing over a town to the south. No one can catch him, and his magic is a pain to dispel. They're looking for an ice or fire mage to hunt him down and melt his ice. I thought maybe you would be handy to have along."

Natsu stared. "You want me to do a job with you?"

Gray heaved a world-weary sigh. "Conversation might be easier if you had a brain."

"Hey…"

Natsu was too stunned to protest. Gray did not usually invite Natsu out on jobs. He usually just punched him in the face.

The strange behavior was even more baffling once they reached the town in question and found that the crook, although sneaky and a pain to track down, was something of a small fry. His ice had more of a frosty quality to it, a fleeting sort of permanence that easily gave way under the touch of a foreign magic. Gray barely had to glance at it to set it melting. A fact that he rubbed in mercilessly, because he was always one to gloat.

"Why did you even tag along if you weren't going to do anything?" he asked with a smirk.

Natsu glowered and bounded off towards a patch of ice encasing a storefront farther down the street. "I would if you would stop melting everything before I got to it!"

Sure enough, his target had melted by the time he reached it. It wasn't _fair_ that Gray stole all the fun and didn't even have to get close to do it.

Natsu would not be upstaged. The next patch of ice he spotted, he lobbed a fireball at from down the street before Gray had the chance to untangle the weak magic. While it did melt the ice, it also smashed through the front of someone's house and set the curtains ablaze.

"You idiot!" Gray cried, rushing to freeze over the worst of the damage and douse the flames. "What were you _thinking_?"

"You keep melting all the ice before I can get there and then making fun of me," Natsu said with a huff. "It's your fault."

"Well, maybe if you had a _brain_ …"

The townspeople were none too pleased with the damage and eyed the mages with suspicion—Natsu for his disastrous fireball and Gray for temporarily freezing the area with an even stronger magic than their mystery felon. Natsu was banned from attempting to melt anything else.

Gray dispatched the rest of the mess with ease.

Actually _catching_ their crook took the better part of the day. With only some vague tips from locals and gut feelings to go one, they had their work cut out for them. Natsu quickly lost patience with the tedious search—as far as he was concerned, there was far too much detective work and not enough fighting—but Gray always dragged him back when he started wandering off and snapped out a comeback for every complaint Natsu uttered. Which started a new game, of course. Natsu would sneak off or generally make a nuisance of himself, and Gray would grumble and snark and force him back on track. Few games were more fun than those that annoyed Gray.

By the time they ferreted out their man—who turned out to be a gangly, misanthropic teenager with a bad case of acne and too many brains for his own good—it was already time for dinner. They argued over who would treat, and Gray only gave in after Natsu spent several minutes whining that it was the ice block's fault he'd gotten stuck out here in the first place, starving and bored out of his mind. Eventually, even Gray couldn't take Natsu's whining anymore. Natsu had won, and it felt _good_.

It was only much later, after he'd survived the train ride home and picked up Happy and snuggled into bed for the night, that he realized he hadn't been lost in his memories ever since Gray sat down beside him at the guild.

* * *

Gray was gone. Natsu sensed it the moment he cracked open his eyes and blinked blearily into the darkness. He sat up and squinted at the other side of the room, where Gray should have been sleeping. Sure enough, he could make out the shadow of blankets thrown back in a messy heap and no sign of Gray. He didn't hear anything and Gray's scent was just a touch stale, so he doubted it was his friend's departure that had woken him.

Natsu nearly flopped over and went right back to sleep—it wasn't his business what the ice princess did at night, and he didn't particularly care—but then he remembered Gray trying to use an apparently self-sacrificial spell—twice!—earlier and thought better of it. It wasn't his business what Gray did at night, but he'd prefer if it wasn't some suicidal bullshit.

Yawning widely, he wriggled out of bed. Happy sighed and murmured something under his breath, but didn't wake. Natsu snuck out of the hut that the demon villagers had lent them and into the night beyond. His stomach growled, even though they'd eaten a veritable feast earlier. He could use another.

_Focus_.

Natsu didn't immediately see anything of interest in the dark. The full moon cast milky light over the village, but nothing moved in the shadows. But he could be resourceful when he wanted to be. He put his nose to work.

He stalked through the village and into the forest, weaving through the trees. There were more distracting smells—musty animals, green plants, damp soil, stale tracks of demon villagers, the faint salty tinge of the sea in the distance—to muddle Gray's scent out here, but Natsu was no amateur. He followed Gray's trail like a bloodhound, and it couldn't be more than a few hours old.

At first it twisted inwards a little, in the vague direction of the temple, and Natsu wondered if his friend could really be that stupid. Surely, he wouldn't be returning to the hideout of that creep Lyon and his weirdo friends. What kind of idiot would do that?

But then the path turned away and led Natsu directly to the sea.

He found Gray perched on a rocky outcropping overlooking the ocean. Not on the sandy beach like a normal person, but among a minefield of sharp and pointy rocks that looked like a broken ankle waiting to happen. Natsu had better than average night vision, but he had no idea how Gray had made it out there without twisting something. Unless he _had_ , and the reason he hadn't come back was because he was stranded. Idiot.

Natsu made it out uneventfully, and thankfully found that the rocks smoothed out after the initial jagged defense. Gray had found a ledge sticking out over the water, close enough that the sea spray hung in the air and misted their faces when the waves rolled in. Natsu wrinkled his nose at the sharp tang of salt and sat beside Gray in a tangle of limbs.

Gray didn't look over or start in surprise, but his faint sigh was almost lost under the lapping of the waves. Natsu supposed it wouldn't take extra-keen dragon hearing to hear someone stumbling about and cursing on the uneven rocks.

"Whatcha doing?" Natsu asked.

Gray's gaze slid sideways, dark eyes glinting with exasperation, before returning to the waves. "Couldn't sleep," he grunted. "Went walking and ended up here."

"Ah," Natsu said, nodding sagely. "Of course. You're so out of shape that you needed a break before being able to make it back."

Gray's sigh was both more audible and more irritated this time. "Go away, flame brain."

"Can't," Natsu said immediately. "I almost sprained an ankle and broke my neck just getting here. Looks like I'm stuck until morning."

Gray groaned and muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like _why me?_ Natsu waited, but Gray offered no further response. They sat in silence for a little while before Natsu breathed out a sigh of his own. Of course it would be like pulling teeth. All he really wanted to do was go back to bed.

"Whatcha thinking?" he asked, hoping to get Gray talking even a little.

"Nothing, really," Gray grumbled. "Can't you go entertain yourself elsewhere?"

Natsu perked up and studied his friend's profile with a frown. "Nothing?"

Gray never said _nothing_. Gray _always_ had a reason in his back pocket, something clever or ridiculous or downright weird to whip out. To…distract, maybe. Redirect the conversation. Natsu hadn't thought of it like that before, but he was suddenly reminded of a time, a couple years ago, when he had been quietly mourning Igneel by himself and had said exactly the same thing.

Did Gray's _nothing_ actually _mean_ nothing, or was it a _something_ that he didn't want to talk about? What about every other time Natsu had asked the question and Gray had snapped back something crazy and, on closer inspection, perhaps intentionally misleading? Natsu had always shrugged it off and enjoyed the game, but could Gray have been hiding something all along?

Because he had a pretty good idea of what Gray was thinking about now, and it wasn't nothing. What other untruths might he have believed in the past?

"Well, nothing _much_ ," Gray said, subdued but making a visible effort to gather himself. "You know how we were talking about how cool it would be if you could taste color? So I was thinking yellow might be kind of lemony, purple would be grape, and orange would be…well, orange. Stuff like that. But doesn't it seem weird that we sort of always associate fruit flavors with colors? Like, why not something else?"

Natsu didn't think it was about the taste of color, either. The niggling sense of discomfort scratched harder at the back of his mind. The sense that maybe he had been a bad friend all along and hadn't realized it.

"I think green should taste like steak," he said, because this was the pattern they had always fallen into and he didn't know how to break it now. He couldn't make Gray talk about what was bothering him, and wasn't sure he was prepared for that conversation himself.

Gray did twist around then and look him full on, his face contorted with disgust. "Are you serious?" he demanded. " _Steak?_ And for _green_ , too? Can you imagine eating a green steak?"

"You didn't ask what color steak should be. You asked what flavor green should be."

"It's wrong!"

"Why does it even have to be food at all? Why shouldn't yellow taste like saltwater? Or red taste like grass? Oh, what if brown is that nasty taste like when you drink orange juice right after brushing your teeth?"

Even in the dark, Gray was looking downright queasy. "That's just not right," he muttered.

"Why not? You said you were tired of fruit."

Gray wrinkled his nose. "Maybe that _is_ why, actually. Maybe we just like it better when our senses agree on something. It's easier to imagine a color tasting like something that actually _is_ that color because it's like our senses work both ways."

Natsu huffed. "Maybe you're just being close-minded. I wouldn't mind a steak now. All this talk about food is making me hungry again."

His stomach rumbled loudly on cue, and Gray rolled his eyes.

"Only you would be hungry at the thought of green steak."

"Look, only a crazy person would pass up a good steak. I don't care _what_ color it is."

"One could argue that maybe a green steak isn't a _good_ steak at all."

" _All_ steak is good steak."

"Then why would you have to specify?"

They bickered back and forth for a few minutes, because that was what they did. Certainly, it would take a braver and more foolhardy man than Natsu to poke the elephant in the room.

"By the way," he said casually, when they took a moment to breathe, "I was thinking about taking a job after this, if you want to come."

Gray snorted loudly. "Isn't that what got you into trouble in the first place? Unfortunately, it seems like we'll have to deal with Erza first." He shuddered. "And Jii-chan. Thanks a lot, by the way. This is all your fault."

"Hey! You decided to go along with it." Natsu hurried right along past that point, as it had the potential to strike a little too close to the heart of the matter. "Let's just ditch Erza on the way. If she can't catch us, she can't drag us back to Jii-chan."

"You're just gonna ditch Lucy and Happy with her? I thought you were friends."

"Happy's coming with us, obviously." Natsu frowned, still not sure where Lucy fit into their little group or, in fact, where any of them did. "I guess Lucy can come if she doesn't slow us down enough to get caught by Erza."

Gray's eyes glittered in the dark with a predatory gleam. "And you've already picked the job you want to do?"

"Well, no. I don't believe in planning. We can just find one."

"We can find one…on the job board back at the guild where Erza is planning to drag us and Jii-chan is waiting for us?"

Natsu winced. "Oh."

"Fabulous plan, flame brain. Face it, we're screwed. You totally screwed us over."

"Hey… We can just get one after our punishment, then. Or maybe we can sneak out."

Their situation was hardly ideal, but Natsu wanted to make it work. Back when he'd been upset, Gray had taken him on a job and made him forget all about it. He wasn't sentimental or anything, but he figured he could return the favor. If only Gray would get off his high horse long enough to agree to it.

"Good luck with that," Gray muttered. "But okay. If you want."

Natsu grinned. He'd known he could win the ice block over.

"Now can we go back?" he asked. "I'm tired and Erza's gonna wake us up early."

"Well, go on. You know the way."

"But I almost broke my neck getting out here! You have to come too or I'll be stuck until morning!"

"You really think I'm going to help you if you fall?" Gray grumbled, but he stood up and brushed off his pants. "I'm just going to laugh."

They picked their way carefully through the rocks, and then headed back up the beach and into the trees. Their silence was companionable for a minute, before Natsu eyed his friend sidelong again.

"Whatcha thinking now?" he asked.

"You know how the villagers didn't even remember they were demons with the whole Moon Drip pollution thing?" Gray said immediately, like he'd just been waiting to be asked. "Wouldn't it be crazy if you were a demon too and just didn't know it yet? It would explain _so_ much."

"Hey!" Natsu cried, and Gray only laughed as they devolved into yet another heated debate.

Really, where _did_ Gray come up with such ridiculous ideas?

**Author's Note:**

> And of course I couldn't resist the E.N.D. reference lol


End file.
